12.07.16 1:00 AM ET
If there’s one piece of legislation that captures the agonizing state of our fact-free and far-from-brave-new Trump world, it’s the Guns Everywhere bill being “debated” by the Tea Party-heavy lawmakers in my home state of Ohio. Its very existence is a reminder that indisputable facts are not kryptonite to the bullshit peddled by bought-off pols, but they’re what we have, so let’s shine whatever light we can on the many ways the bill’s both dippy and dangerous.

Currently only trained law-enforcement officers can bring guns into day-care centers. Yet this law would let anyone carry concealed, loaded guns into your toddlers’ safe spaces.

Speaking of law enforcement, do you think it would be easier for them to protect themselves if any churlish citizen could pack hidden heat in police stations? The mummified Ohio Legislature and their benefactors at the swinish, Putinized National Rifle Association do.

WASHINGTON — Former Senator Bob Dole, acting as a foreign agent for the government of Taiwan, worked behind the scenes over the past six months to establish high-level contact between Taiwanese officials and President-elect Donald J. Trump’s staff, an effort that culminated last week in an unorthodox telephone call between Mr. Trump and Taiwan’s president.

Mr. Dole, a lobbyist with the Washington law firm Alston & Bird, coordinated with Mr. Trump’s campaign and the transition team to set up a series of meetings between Mr. Trump’s advisers and officials in Taiwan, according to disclosure documents filed last week with the Justice Department. Mr. Dole also assisted in Taiwan’s successful efforts to include language favorable to it in the Republican Party platform, according to the documents.

Mr. Dole’s firm received $140,000 from May to October for the work, according to the documents.

The documents suggest that President-elect Trump’s decision to take a telephone call from the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, was less a ham-handed diplomatic gaffe and more the result of a well-orchestrated plan by Taiwan, one that sought to use the election of a new president to deepen its relationship with the United States — with an assist from a seasoned lobbyist well versed in the machinery of Washington.

Remember Donald Trump’s tax returns? It was unheard-of for a presidential candidate to refuse to release returns, since doing so strongly suggests that he has something to hide. And at first the Trump campaign offered excuses, claiming that the returns would eventually be made available once an I.R.S. audit was done, or something. But at this point it’s apparent that Mr. Trump believed, correctly, that he could violate all the norms, stonewall on even the most basic disclosure, and pay no political price.

Indeed, it’s clear that Hillary Clinton was in effect punished for her financial transparency, while Mr. Trump was rewarded for his practice of revealing nothing about how he makes money.

And as a result, we can expect radical lack of transparency to be standard operating procedure in the new administration. In fact, it has already started.

Take, for example, the budget process. Normally, an incoming administration issues a fiscal plan conveying its priorities soon after taking office. But as the budget expert Stan Collender notes, there are strong indications that the Trump administration will ignore this precedent (and, possibly, the law) and simply refuse to offer any explanation of how its proposals are supposed to add up. All we’ll get, probably, are assurances that it’s going to be great, believe me.